Monday, October 7, 2019

September 2019 Entry

September 2019 Entry

Busy, busy.

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- Had dinner with a 20+ year friend and his son (09.02). Thank you.

- Got my copy of the Ace Attorney anime season 2-1 (09.09). Much like the previous season, I enjoyed this one. I was surprised that they had a case that was made just for the anime.


- I had some really bad hip pain at the end of the 27th. I lost a lot of sleep because of it. The following day it still hurt, but it slowly subsided as the day went by. It had me worried as I couldn't figure out why it happened in the first place and that it hurt so much.

  - I think I've done this once a year for a while now, but I stopped using dating apps for a month. Nothing came from it. 
 
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- Clash of Champions was a fun PPV (09.15). Maybe it is just me, but I'm enjoying almost every PPV that has been happening. They aren't all perfect, but there's always something worth watching.


- Got my Royal Rumble tickets (09.18). This was the first time I had to wait in a queue for about 20 minutes, but that's understandable for this event. Ended up buying a set of 8 tickets for cousins and friends. Should be good. We have almost a whole row for that event. We might be seated far away, but my first live event was Wrestlemania XXV in the cheap seats and it was amazing.

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- I sent an email to the owner of the company (09.15). It was in regards to some things that had been going on. I did have it drafted towards the end of August, but held off on it until this point. As of typing this (10.02), issues were addressed.

- Agent Blue came to the Memorial location (09.22). I was going solo due to a scheduling issue. So it was great that Agent Blue was able to come in. Showing him around and then shadowing the last session was like I was training someone again after such a long time. He said he was confident resetting and running sessions after that day, which is awesome.

- Such a busy weekend to end September (09.28, 09.28). I actually booked both of these when both groups came at different times for site visits. Both had daughters turning 10. The first one on Saturday was large with 2 groups of girls coming out to about 16-20. I didn't run these sessions, but Agents Ocean and Wolfman both mentioned how the sessions were rough. I was outside helping with the conference room rental as well as relaying messages to them. But the parents were all glad that the girls had fun. They left us a couple boxes of pizza too. 

The second one on Sunday was a lot easier. The only bump was the beginning because the birthday girl and her parents weren't the first to arrive. The other parents and kids were chilling and waiting, but that was a first. The birthday girl also asked one of the adults to join the session, which I ran. While the girls were loud during the session, it was easy to help them throughout their mission. Afterwards, I went around to all the parents to talk to them about their kids' performances and they really appreciated it (we don't normally do that, but I liked the kids). And then the parents of the birthday girl ran things so smoothly and were the easiest parents I've ever had to work with. I also thanked the parent that joined me in the sessions by giving him 2 free tickets. And then the parents gave us lots of sandwiches and cake to eat.

In the end, both birthdays are excited to come back for more.


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- Our 7th (and final) month of starting a month with a Final Fantasy game. This time with Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (09.03-09.11). The release date for this came late so it nearly beat out Astral Chain. It was so good to come back to this game. It's one of my favorites of the series. As with the other Final Fantasy games I replayed this year, I forgot a lot about this game. I did enjoy getting to show off my Final Fantasy VIII collectibles especially my Triple Triad cards. The only downside to this playthrough was that during a couple of streams, the power went out. Worst was that it went out during the ending, which made the second part really short (but it wasn't super short as I showed off the collection again).



- Got my copy of The Messenger from Limited Run Games (09.03). Wish I got it in time for the Picnic Panic DLC, but I'm glad I have it.


- Nintendo Direct (09.04). Good stuff as always.


- Continuing buying something for my Gyakuten Saiban collection each year by purchasing all 3 Gyakuten Saiban GBA games (09.05). I actually didn't know there were special variants for the 2nd and 3rd games (shiny covers) so I'm glad I got those and each game complete in box.


- Demo Showcase 22 happened (09.13). Another fun batch of demos. 


Brawlout - Fun fighter similar to Smash Bros, but much like Brawlhalla, I had to constantly remind myself not to play it like Smash.
The Charming Empire - Our 5th visual novel in a row. Not a bad one, but nothing really stood out from it.
DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition - Very much a solid RPG with amazing visuals and an interesting story.
Rain City - Simple point and click puzzle game. I really liked the art style.
Them Bombs! - Very similar to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. It was very interesting to play alone as I had to consult the guide and do all the actions myself. Would have been more fun with an extra player. 

Out of this group of 5, Dragon Quest XI was my favorite.

- Got my third Twitch payout (09.16). It surprised me to get one, but it was at the lower rate, which is fine. It was just unexpected.

- QUByte Interactive reached out to me in August about playing VASARA Collection. They had actually given me a code to download 99Vidas late last year and played it at the beginning of the year. So when they contacted me to play another one of their games, I was on board. But I let them know I couldn't play it when the game was released in August and they were okay with it. Finally played it as our free game of September (09.16-09.17). It's a crazy bullet hell shoot 'em up. I enjoy them, but am not the greatest at them. In fact, I had to use a method of calling in a second player in order to beat both VASARA games. Good fun. Thanks, QUByte Interactive.


- For our NES game of the month, I went with Vice: Project Doom (09.18). I knew little about it except for a friend who praised it. So with that, I played it on stream and then started to recognize it (most likely from Game Informer). And the game was really good. It had different action scenes that all handled well and a fun story with Ninja Gaiden type cut scenes. I thought the game was so good that I ended up beating the game twice on stream. And now I am another person that will highly recommend this game to others.



- Sayonara Wild Hearts was released (09.19). It has been on my radar ever since the first trailer was shown. It didn't have a release date and it was dropped on the 19th of this month. I'm excited to play it and I have it slated to be the first game I play in 2020.


- The remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening came out (09.20-09.25). Overall, I really enjoyed playing this remake. It looks really good and had a lot of quality of life improvements. In the end, I did everything possible in game (collected all hearts, shells, bottles), but I did not do the final Chamber Dungeons (those were okay, but repetitive after a while). And I unfortunately did not get the best ending due to my only death happening early on in the game (watched it online). But I really liked this adventure.





Unfortunately I did have audio issues throughout this stream. It started after my PC updated the day the game was released. I couldn't hear any audio through my headphones. Thankfully the viewers were able to hear me and the game, but could not hear notifications. The notification noises came back for the second stream, but that was the only thing I could hear in my ear buds). And then on the last stream of the game, all of a sudden my mic defaulted to my webcam and I did not know for the first hour. Thankfully a frequent viewer helped me out with the issue to get it back to what it was for this series. And it was good that I did get to gauge how loud the audio from the TV was coming out through the stream because I never really tested it. So it is possible, but of course the TV volume can't be too loud or else the audio will come through on the stream too.

- New additions to my amiibo collection arrived (09.24). Very great quality for each one. And I'm glad the Link's Awakening one arrived for the finale of the game on stream.


- After having the PC issues (mainly the audio) during Link's Awakening and not having success with others helping me or myself figuring out on my own, I brought it to work so Double Take could try his hand at it (09.26). It didn't take more than maybe half an hour for him to figure it out. After a few test streams, I was satisfied with it. 

When I took it home, more issues cropped up. First it was me connecting a few wires incorrectly, but that got sorted out. The main thing was that my Switched would not go into docked mode. During the wire connecting, I did drop the dock from about a foot high. I tried multiple things and even looked online, which seemed to come to the conclusion that I possibly needed a new dock. Luckily I was able to test things with another Switch and dock. Those worked fine with my stream set up and my Switch was able to dock in that one. I hooked my dock back in and was able to get both Switches to dock. I have no idea why it all of a sudden started working again, but I was glad because I was so worried that I would have to buy a new dock or possibly push back or change or cancel the anniversary stream.

- This day marked my 1 Year Anniversary Stream (09.27). My first stream happened on September 28th last year, but I wasn't able to do it the same day due to work being very busy that day. So while my Fridays are usually off, I requested the day off just in case.

I asked a friend of 20+ years to join me for the stream. She had mentioned a game in Discord as well as that I should have a guest come on to play it with. So I asked her to be that guest and downloaded Burnstar for free (originally $20, on sale at the time for $1, used gold coins to pay for it). The day for her coming to be a guest would have happened earlier in the year, but our schedules didn't mesh. Thankfully it worked out for the anniversary stream. 

The stream was fun. While the game didn't click with us at first, Akikobean and I really got into Burnstar. More her than me as she is better with puzzles. We didn't beat it because we were both hungry and she was very tired. We have already discussed beating it (we were so close) the next time she comes on stream. And because of her, I'm more comfortable with the idea of having future guests. Normal viewers definitely saw a different energy from me as I was bouncing off someone else rather than it being another chill stream.





A few things about the anniversary itself and one year of streaming. It'll be a mix of positives and negatives. I was expecting a bigger turnout. Considering that I had mentioned it in a few streams (mine or others) prior, advertised it a day before, and posted it in all the Discords I was in I thought more would show up. But this is how it has been for this past year, I have to stream at these times because those are the most convenient for me. It has been mentioned to me in the past that I should stream at different times when others are able to watch. I have. The turnout is the same or even less. More on the less side as the later I stream, the chances are those that couldn't watch me during my normal times are streaming themselves. So if the time I stream doesn't matter, then I need to stream at times that work for me and that's how it has been. 

For those that did show up, I was grateful for them. The familiar faces I've met throughout this year that were there meant a lot. Part of me was expecting the normal turnout or even less (for no real reason). But there was a small group of new faces that were from the Burnstar community and one of them was the designer of the game too. That is always awesome to have someone that made the game in the stream and that has happened maybe 5 times throughout this year of streaming (something I never even thought of). That made playing the game more fun. So while I was disappointed not to see some other familiar faces for this anniversary, I can't complain about those that did. Thank you.

After the stream, Akikobean and I talked a lot about streaming and general and she asked me about my goals for it. I really didn't have one at first. Double Take was the one to push me to stream because (and I always say this) if I wasn't streaming, I'd still be playing these games. It might not have been a goal at first, but hitting a year was important for me to see if I even wanted to do it for that long. But I mentioned that night that after 3 years, I would know for sure if I want to continue or not. And it was mentioned on stream, but becoming a Nintendo Ambassador would be dream goal to come from streaming. I mean...I only play Nintendo games already, ha. And I've always been a Nintendo player since the NES. So if that was attainable, that would be fantastic.

A few specific thanks:
Double Take - Thank you for pushing me to stream. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be where I am now in the streaming world.
y0nderboy - Thank you for the additional push by helping me secure equipment before I started streaming. And for the PC that you built for me 4-5 years ago that now is used for streaming.
ClottyCola - Thank you for the emotes. I don't think I'll ever grow tired of them.
kenchien22 - Thank you for being a friend of 20+ years and for continuing to stay connected with me through streaming and in life.
Akikobean - Thank you for being a friend of 20+ years like kenchien22. And thank you for being my first guest on stream.

A special thanks to those that I've met through Twitch. There's a lot of you. But a larger thanks to those that have reached out to learn more about me outside of streaming. It makes me want to start talking to more of you and become better friends and not just names we see in a stream chat. You are more than welcome to reach out to me as well.

And to anyone that spent any amount of time in any of my streams, thank you for your time. Thank you for your company. Thanks for letting me be me.

- Played our first SNES game off the SNES app with Super Mario World (09.30). Second stream ever was Super Mario Bros 3 so the second one of the second year was another Mario game. While it was great to play it again, my mood was dampened by because the webcam stopped working 3 hours in. I tried ungpluging and plugging it back in, swapped to the original webcam...nothing. On the fly, I put my emote on screen instead (which I made a permanent afterwards if the webcam ever goes out again). I was glad that the chat was trying to help out, but it leaked into my performance as well as I messed up a lot and forgot stuff. So while the game is still fine, this won't be a favorite stream of mine.



- I have now started to post my monthly schedule in Discord. It's more of a list. I decided not to put hard dates on them just in case the schedule changes due to work/life. But now those in Discord will know what's coming that month.

- And I figured out what to do with the favorites of Demo Showcases. In Discord, there is a Demo Showcase Vote section. Much like a Demo Showcase, 5 favorites will be chosen by me and those in the Discord can vote on which one I end up playing. The first vote consisted of Shift Quantum, Octahedron: Transfixed Edition, Bad North, Gabbuchi, and R-Type Dimensions EX. The voting ended up being 0, 1, 3, 0, 5 with R-Type Dimensions EX winning. I plan to play it in November, but won't buy it until it is either on sale or the day before. Thanks to those that voted.
 
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- FinKL - Like the song remains (MV)


- Jessica X GIRIBOY - Call Me Before You Sleep (MV)


- TWICE - Feel Special (MV)


One, I'm very proud of TWICE. They keep getting better all around. Two, I am glad that Mina participated in the mini album and music video, but I really am glad they are letting her take time off to be healthy. Three, Sana with straight pink hair is amazing. Four, Momo without bangs...wow. 

- That's a wrap on September 2019. Thanks for reading and take care.




"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
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